Ozark National Scenic Riverways · Missouri
Overview In the rolling, forested landscape of Big Spring, two of America's most beautiful spring-fed rivers combine to make up the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. As the first national park area to protect a wild river system, visitors have plenty of scenic water activities to enjoy as well as hiking, horseback riding and wildlife viewing. Recreation The Current River flows past the campground, offering excellent canoeing, tubing, swimming and fishing.
Sites at Big Spring are reserved through Recreation.gov. Sites here can be reserved in advance through the official system, and they are claimed fast — cancellations then trickle back all season, unannounced, at any hour of the day or night.
| Total sites | 137 |
|---|---|
| Site types | Standard, Group, Picnic area |
| Hookups | Electric hookups at some sites |
| Location | Van Buren, MO |
| Book through | Recreation.gov |
| Official listing | Recreation.gov |
Because sites are booked months ahead, a steady share of reservations get cancelled as trips fall through. Each cancellation instantly returns that site and those nights to the official calendar — first-come, first-served, no waitlist, no announcement. Refreshing the booking page yourself, every few minutes for weeks, works in theory. In practice, the people who get these sites are the ones who hear about the opening first.
ItOpened scans the Recreation.gov calendar for Big Spring around the clock. When a site matching your dates and your vehicle opens, you get a text with a direct link to it. You book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. We never book, hold, or resell — your fee pays for monitoring, and openings are first-come, so speed is the whole game.
| Alley Spring | Cancellation alerts available |
|---|---|
| Round Spring | Cancellation alerts available |
| Pulltite | Cancellation alerts available |
| Jacks Fork / Middle Current Backcountry Campsites | Cancellation alerts available |
| Lower Current District Backcountry Campsites | Cancellation alerts available |
| Upper Current District Backcountry Campsites | Cancellation alerts available |
| Two Rivers | Cancellation alerts available |
| Akers | Cancellation alerts available |
Page data refreshed 2026-10-29. Site facts come from the official directory listing for Big Spring; cancellation statistics come from our own scanning logs.